Nigrinus

‘But I said that there was entertainment also to be derived from the scene; and I will maintain it. Our rich men are an entertainment in themselves, with their purple and theis rings always in evidence, and their thousand vulgarities. The latest development is the salutation by proxy[*](The spoken salutation being performed by a servant.); they favour us with a glance, and that must be happiness enough. By the more ambitious spirits, an obeisance is expected; this is not performed at a distance, after the Persian fashion—you go right up, and make a profound bow, testifying with the angle of your body to the self-abasement of your soul; you then kiss his hand or breast—and happy and tnviable is he who may do so muchrlp And there stands the great man, protracting the illusion as leng as may be. (I heartily acquiesce, by the way, in the churlish sentence which excludes us from a nearer acquaintance with their lips.)